신흥무관학교와 서간도 한인사회의 지원과 역할

Abstract

West Jiandao was an area where the Korean people easily emigrated. As merchant groups accompanying the Joseon delegations to China were in and out of the area, border trade between Joseon and China was buoyant. Also West Jiandao was a site for the livelihood of the people gathering ginseng and medicinal herbs and the hunters who resided in the northern district of Joseon. Even though Joseon and China took a step of prohibition, that is,the extreme penalty, to prevent Koreans’ emigration in early 17th century,the Koreans continuously emigrated to West Jiandao. As Japanese imperialism forcibly occupied the Korean Empire by force in 1910, independence fighters joined the lines of emigration and the Korean people’s emigration to West Jiandao accelerated. In 1911 when Sinheung Military School was established, a largescale Korean community was formed in West Jiandao. As farmlands chosen by Koreans in West Jiandao were different from those of Chinese farmers, they could successfully settle down there, however, the Koreans who were not naturalized in China and had not their names enter in the family register had to lead a life as a tenant farmer of a Chinese landowner because they could not be invested with land ownership. As religious bodies were developed inside the Korean community in West Jiandao, an ethnic community through a life of faith was rapidly 신흥무관학교와 서간도 한인사회의 지원과 역할 59promoted. Meanwhile, as the governmental system of local authorities of China was organized early and the Chinese people’s moving to West Jiandao made active progress, Koreans in West Jiandao could not but make every possible effort to promote exchanges and cooperation with the natives. Sinheung Military School which was established in Chooga Street,Yooha-hyeon in 1911 moved to Habniha, Tonghwa-hyeon and then to Gosanja, Yooha-hyeon, and was born again as a birthplace producing the pillars for Korean independence movement. In some sense, the difficult living conditions in the fields of politics, economy, social affairs, education and others which the Korean community in West Jiandao faced got to be the driving force for Sinheung Military School to put down its roots deeply in the Korean community. The graduates of Sinheung Military School and Sinheung Students’ Association that wanted to establish a base for independence movement in the Korean community in West Jiandao played a leading role in school management and an enlightenment movement. As they taught children as a teacher in the daytime and trained local Korean young men on military skills as a drill instructor at night, they performed their duties to prepared themselves for a future independence war and mobilize military forces. Also as the graduates of Sinheung Military School worked as an elementary school teacher, they became a crusader to propagate new civilization and the spirit of independence movement. “Sinheung Student Bulletin” which was published by Sinheung Students’ Association posed as a cradle to arouse a new revolution of consciousness and tried to search for the course to reach Korean independence and liberation through the remarks about a state, a nation, education, friendship, religion and others.